Visit the Castle Engarran for the weekend national parks & gardens [ August 30th, 2010 ] Posted in » wine tour
On the occasion of the weekend National parks and gardens on 5 and 6 June, the Castle of Engarran opened the doors of his 3-acre garden in the French fans. A walk inside the property where the resplendent beauty of his “madness” of the eighteenth century.
This visit was also an opportunity to explore the museum at this grape castle while tasting the delicious wines of the proposed by the castle.
The Engarran: symbol of Montpellier follies.
A folly is a wealthy suburban home craft. In the Engarran castle on a hill covered with vineyards, lies in its park, the Engarran, most feminine, the more baroque and best preserved of Montpellier follies.
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Your ordinary winery does not have its own cattle brand, nor a herd of Black Angus roaming the hillsides above the vineyards, but then, Kirkland Ranch Winery is not your ordinary winery. When the Kirkland brothers, Larry and Lonnie, purchased the 2000-acre spread that was part of General Mariano Vallejo’s original Rancho Soscol land grant in 1978 the primary crop on their Rocking LK Ranch was cattle. Grapes joined the mix in 1985 at the suggestion of Larry’s daughter, Chris, and additional vines were planted until, today, there are 138 acres of vineyard containing Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Syrah, Sangiovese, and Nebbiolo.
There is a winemaker in the Russian River valley who is marking her ninth Pinot Noir vintage this year, and she seems to have charmed this recalcitrant grape into allowing her to produce wines that sell out as soon as the waiting world hears another is on the way. Eugenia Keegan, owner and winemaker of Keegan Cellars is the person whose name is on the label of these Pinot Noirs, and that’s all that many people need to know before heading to their favorite wine shop.
VINTAGE: 2000
Appellation d’Origine - Appellation.
You might not have had the chance, or even thought about looking to the beautiful Pacific Northwest for your last purchase of wine. Well it is understandable. If you are not from the area you might not know that there are 153 wineries in Oregon producing quality wine, and trying to get the word out to you and the rest of the world. Many wine writers have talked about “Discovering the wines of Oregon”. Well maybe we are still busy discovering the wines of Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Spain, New York and South Africa. That’s all fine and well, just drop all of them for now and lets look at Pinot Noir country. (o.k. Chard country too)
It is a happenin’ wine varietal now and it has been for the last five years in the retail sector (it has won over many California Cabernet, Zin, and Merlot drinkers) and on fine wine lists nation wide. Shiraz is the most widely planted red grape in Australia and the selection offered to the world market has been growing over the last few years. Shiraz is a great wine grape. Get to know it if you enjoy 
It’s that time of year again folks, so feel free to read this article and take from it what you can. This is one huge meal that always gets a lot of people wandering the wine aisle’s trying to pick out that one perfect wine. Don’t do it. Don’t think that there is one perfect wine. There are hundreds and hundreds. This is a feast that can accommodate so many wines that I could walk blindfolded through my wine store and come up with wines that match.
When we say “Fogarty”, you think of a reefer-smoking hippie singing Born on the Bayou, right? Well stop it. As much as we love doobie hittin’ singers from CCR (John Fogerty, see they aren’t even spelled the same), we love winery-owning doctors named Thomas Fogarty even more. Why? Because the good doctor has a winery located up in the Santa Cruz Mountains that puts out a plethora of good juice, and it’s all handcrafted by a damngood and seasoned wine making all-star; Mr. Michael Martella.
Sensual Liquid from Anderson Valley